@ScreenName48105, my son also knows several kids in the Juilliard jazz undergrad program who are from areas of the country that are not anywhere near NYC, so I assume they went through the pre-screen route, not the Juilliard pre-college route. And he knows at least a few kids in prior years who submitted pre-screen recordings as high school students and were invited for live auditions (though not admitted). There’s also a poster here, @convertedjazzdad, whose son was admitted to Juilliard jazz undergrad this year, so he might be able to provide more info on the process.
As for the Zoom, my son has the H4n audio-only recorder and is very happy with the sound quality on it. I don’t have any experience with the Zoom video recorders, but I’ve heard that the sound quality on those is very good as well.
Have you made other recordings before? we did one for camp last year which wasn’t too bad, but my daughter’s teacher at the time and a pianist she loves to work with were there, I was just pointing the camera.
This year, we recorded her excerpts for Tanglewood, and I swear that was one of the most stressful experiences I’ve ever had with my child. It definitely expanded to fit all available time – and more.
Next year I think I’ll enlist the help of a conservatory student to walk her through the process.
We have a zoom audio recorder and a Canon camera. I’ve never figured out how to get them to talk to each other, if that’s possible. I can tell you that the mic on the Canon was good enough this year, but the sound quality on the Zoom is much better.
We also know a jazz pianist (high schooler) who made it through Julliard prescreen. And my son met another student auditioning for jazz guitar who also passed. Maybe it was just our visit, but I couldn’t detect any vibe at all to the jazz program - way too quiet. But that’s a topic for another thread.
On the slightly off subject Jazz and Juilliard I should be remembered that the school is in NYC where the opportunities to gig or go out and listen to the best are more numerous because of the location. Jazz is an urban art and you can’t beat NYC for urban.
On the subject of recording, the differences between Classical and Jazz auditions do require a different setting. For anyone stressing about audio only, what I did was just use the same takes I recorded with a video camera and strip the audio off it. There are free programs out there that will do this very nicely.